Afterall, you want your business to go from being buried on the 2nd or 3rd page of Google to being above your competitors. If you focus on improving your online presence, your end-prize will be ultimately new customers.
The following reputation management strategies can be implemented and applied to local businesses and large organizations alike, and has the potential to yield significant results when done correctly.
Make customer service a priority
Is your business focused on providing stand-out customer satisfaction? Interaction with your base can make or break your reputation, so you should always be willing to deliver nothing but quality products and excellent customer service. How you engage with your clients translates how they relate to your business, including what they say about you online.
Take note of what customers want
Involving your customers in business decisions can prove to be beneficial. Why? By asking them what they want, you can cater your marketing around their feedback. You can also encourage customer loyalty by engaging with your customers through surveys and encourage them to share their opinions and ideas.
Respond to negative reviews
Today, getting a negative review from time to time is pretty much unavoidable. As a business, even one that offers outstanding service, you are bound to receive an unwarranted write-up online. Many business owners don’t know how to respond to them, so they just avoid writing back all together. However, silence speaks, and not saying anything implies that you agree with what was written. That is why you should always respond to negative reviews while maintaining a professional stance. Doing so shows that you care and can inevitably help you have better customer relationships.
Be creative with your brand narrative
Take a step back and ask yourself what makes you follow and interact with some businesses on social media. Is it because they post helpful tips, live videos, contests, etc.? Often, popular brands create a narrative that evokes interaction or even certain feelings. You should strive to achieve the same by speaking directly to your target audience in a way that lets them know you are passionate about your brand.
Sign up for Google Alerts
Google alerts is a service that sends emails to a user when it finds new results—such as web pages, newspaper articles, blogs, or scientific research—that match the user’s search term. In this case, your search term would be your brand or company name. Instead of combing the internet for mentions on your own time, you will get notifications based on the keywords associated with your brand or business name. You will also be able to monitor any positive or negative remarks so you can always be on top of your reputation.
When it comes down to it, you can be sure that your customers and clients are looking for information about your business online. Taking time to focus on how you appear or what is being said about you will allow you to become more accountable and improve the overall success of your business.
